John W. TAYLOR, Congress, NY (1784-1854)

TAYLOR, John W., a Representative from New York; born in Charlton, N.Y., March 26, 1784; received his early education at home; was graduated from Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., in 1803; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1807 and commenced practice in Ballston Spa, N.Y.; organized the Ballston Center Academy; justice of the peace in 1808; member of the state assembly in 1812 and 1813; elected as a Republican to the Thirteenth Congress and reelected to the four succeeding Congresses, elected as an Adams-Clay Republican to the Eighteenth Congress, reelected as an Adams candidate to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses, and elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Congresses (March 4, 1813-March 3, 1833); chairman, Committee on Elections (Fourteenth and Fifteenth Congresses), Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business (Fifteenth Congress), Committee on Elections (Sixteenth Congress); Speaker of the House of Representatives (Sixteenth and Nineteenth Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1832 to the Twenty-third Congress; resumed the practice of law in Ballston Spa, N.Y.; member of the state senate in 1840 and 1841, but resigned in consequence of a paralytic stroke; moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1843, and died there September 18, 1854; interment in the Ballston Spa Village Cemetery, Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, N.Y.

Bibliography

Spann, Edward K. “John W. Taylor, The Reluctant Partisan, 1784-1854.” Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1957; Spann, Edward K. “The Souring of Good Feelings: John W. Taylor and the Speakership Election of 1821.” New York History 41 (October 1960): 379-99.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present